by Justin Clay
The first of the outside animals we see about are the horses, watering and feeding them with the oats and barley harvested from the fields. Then we throw out feed from the massive supply tin tower on the farm to the hens and a very territorial rooster they dubbed as Big Shot. After leaving the chicken coops, we visited the few amounts of sheep and goats they keep, and then we visit the one pig they have left, her name being Big Sue. Big Sue doesn’t really seem to be happy to see us as much as she is with the food Lucas brings and slops over into the metal feeding bin. We travel inside the barn for the last few animals. We feed their few horses and pay a visit to Sugar, their oldest living cow that’s white with black spots, and carries an utter than seems much too heavy for her.
Once all the animals are fed and watered, Lucas has to see to the crops. Looks for anything missing, or damaged. Their fields mostly consist of planted corn. So we check the stalks, rummaging through, searching for anything suspicious. Everything seems to be okay. We return to Sugar, Lucas with a tin pale in hand and attempt to milk her. Well, I attempt to milk her; Lucas is the one who makes most of the milk. Her utters are slick and pudgy, and at first feel strange to hold. Lucas tells me I need a firm grasp and I try, but I think I have squeezed too tightly, because Sugar begins to stir uncomfortably. Lucas takes over from there, and I laugh. Finished Lucas brings the weighty pale, sloshing with fresh milk to Mrs. Huckle, now in the kitchen again. June tells me that they’ve planted sunflower seeds together. June seems very happy, and for that I am glad we ended up here of all places.
That night finds Lucas and I playing a competitive game of cards; one that he showed me how to play. June had already fallen asleep, and Mary had carried her up the stairs to their spare room. Mr. Huckle, like my sister, is sleeping too. Mary has the living room’s window cracked open to let in the cool breeze that brings with it the sounds of singing crickets. We, Lucas and I, sit on the floor in front of the hearth was glass lamp light, its fire slowly flickering casting long shadows throughout the room, throwing our shadows along the walls across from us.
We’re alone, and I take this moment to ask him something that’s been bothering me. I lay down my cards, and he cocks his head, confused.
“Lucas? Can I ask you something?”
“Sure, Rian,” he says to me. “What is it?”
“I understand if this is too personal…And if you don’t want to say anything I understand — ”
“Are you asking about my sister, Rian?” he asks me, his voice lowered, and I nod. “You saw in the pictures upstairs, no doubt.”
“Is she…?”
“She’s dead,” he tells me and my suspicions are confirmed.
“How did she — ”
“It was the Infected; we were attacked about three years ago one night, and saving me, my sister was bitten…Our father was forced to shoot her.”
“Oh God, that’s terrible.”
“Yes,” he says solemnly. “We have tried to forget about it…My father especially, but you can’t forget about something like that; you’d be a fool to even try…My mother…She is the way she is about Infected, not wanting to talk about them because of that — well, she had a hard time believing it to begin with…She swore it was all rumors up until…Up until Rema was taken from us; it’s a bit annoying at times, but I understand…
“She still thinks about Rema…Mom says she’s healed now, but I don’t think she is…She keeps going on as if nothing ever happened sometimes, and I’ve heard her sobbing at nights about my sister, over and over…And the room…She believes, I think if she keeps it just as Rema had it…One day, she’ll come back and things will be all right again…I want her to see reason, father does to…But we don’t say much; she won’t hear of it, even if we try…”
“That’s awful, I’m really sorry…Lucas,” I tell him. “But you’re not alone…Your family isn’t the only ones who have suffered…I have too…June has…June…”
“Yeah, I think we all have in ways since this mess happened,” he says. “But do you want to talk about it Rian? Do you want to tell me about yourself any?”
Normally, I would say no. I would remain closed, not wanting to give anything away to make myself appear vulnerable. But there’s something about Lucas that makes him different. Maybe, it’s in the soft way he looks at me…Not just at me, he looks in, inside, me. Somehow deeper than just that…so I shut my eyes, and tell him my answer.
I tell him my story. June’s story. Our story.
The story of how we lost our parents. Our harrowing path all the way to Colorado, meeting Eli and Lena, hiking through the Rockies…Traveling to Montana, meeting the militaristic group at the dam, Cari, and Eli’s disappearance, and our rescuing of them…The war that happened at Judas’s camp, and Lena’s death, and our eventual leave ending up at the river, to where we are now, here with him.
After I’m finished, Lucas just sits there, crossed legged as he had the entire time, his mouth agape. Stunned. He’s speechless. “I — I uh, I’m sorry, Rian…I don’t know what to say…But damn, you experienced a lot…Wow. That’s crazy! It’s a wonder you and your sister are still living — Oh my God, that didn’t come out the right way…I’m sorry — I — ”
Laughing, I interrupt him, “It’s fine, Lucas…I know what you meant. It is strange after all...That we are indeed still living...”
He sighs in relief. “Oh good…I don’t know what it is but I like you Rian. I like being around you…And I’ve only been around you a day; what am I saying?”
I continue to smile, nodding. “I like you too Lucas, even if it has only been a day…It was a great day. What does it matter?”
“I guess you’re right, Rian.”
“You know what Lucas? I feel like in times like this…When we’re playing cards, here in your house, where your family keeps a life like before going despite everything happening…I feel like the world’s normal again…I feel like there are no Infected, and things are back to the way they should be.”
“I agree,” he says to me.
“Lucas,” I hear Mary call from another room. “It’s time for bed…Tell Rian good night.” She emerges wearing a green and white polka-dotted night gown complete with pink fuzzy slippers. “And, I think you too dear should try and get some sleep…You’ve had a long day.”
I wonder if she heard any of my story. She must have. Nodding, I tell Lucas good night and thank him for the day spent together, before I head up the stairs. And as I do, I notice Mary is whispering something to her son, patting him on the back. Whatever it is doesn’t seem malevolent. I don’t think the woman has a mean bone in her body, but whatever she said, it has Lucas smiling, which for some odd reason makes me smile too.
27
SOMETHING CALLED FATE
“GET UP RIAN! RIAN, get up!” I hear my alarm clock of a sister chime, what seems too early in the morning. My eyes crack open and I can see June is hopping at my beside. “Get up! Get up! You gotta’ get ready to see your boyfriend!”
I groan, covering my face with the crook of my right arm. “Lucas is NOT my boyfriend!” I clarify to my sister who apparently and adamantly thinks otherwise.
I hear my sister giggling, and now she’s pushing me in my side. “Come on lazy bones! Get up!”
“Why do you want me up so badly?” I ask her, still having my eyes closed.
“Because Lucas is already getting ready; he says you two are going hunting first and you gotta get up…And he’s too chicken to wake you up so I’m doing it. Now get your butt up!”
I’m being bossed around by nine-year-old. How wonderful. “Fine, fine! I’m up, I’m up,” I say, exasperated, flinging my body upward. “Happy?”
“I guess,” she says, putting her hands on her hips. “But we need to do something about that hair, missy. It’s too frizzy.”
“Since when did you start caring about hair? And why does it matter if we’re going hunting?”
“Well, you want to look pretty for your boyfriend, don’t you
?”
I give her an evil look. “I told you…”
“He’s not your boyfriend,” she mocks my voice. “I know…But I think you like him like him so I’m saying he’s your boyfriend. Are you guys going to kiss!?”
“Oh my God, June!” I shout, sighing heavily. “Either shut up about him being my boyfriend or get out now…We’ve only known each other for a day…So, really there’s no way.”
“Suit yourself,” she says. “Want me to brush your hair?”
June reveals a yellow hairbrush she had been holding behind her back. “Where did you get that?”
“Found it on the table over there.”
“You know better than to take other people’s stuff.”
“But I — I — I only wanted you to look pretty,” she says, giving me these sad big blue eyes, and okay already! I give in. I tell her she can her way with me, and this causes tons of excitement on her end. So, I sit there on the vanity seat, looking at the mirror, trying to figure out if the strange looking black-haired girl staring back at me is actually me. Is it, really? I guess it has to be. Who else would it be? I just…I just don’t remember the last time I looked in a mirror. A hand reaches up, and I touch my face gently. What happened to me? I really am skin and bones. This is horrifying. I want to tell June not to get her hopes too high with beautifying me, but I don’t want to dampen her spirit, so she goes at it.
Combing my hair is more of an adventure than I would have preferred. By the amount of yanking and pulling of knots, I feel I should be at least bald by now, but I’m not. Somehow, my hair is still there and it falls with more of a smoothness than before and I thank June, telling her she has done well. She seems proud of herself. That’s what counts.
“You should put on this,” June says offering a tube of lipstick, and I roll my eyes.
“I’m not putting that on,” I say, drawing the line and tell her to go put it back where she found it. She’s had her fun. June makes a face, pouts for a moment and then returns the ruby red lipstick back into a drawer in the vanity.
“I think you’re ready,” she tells me.
“I think so too.” And June and I leave Rema’s room, headed downstairs.
We meet Lucas at the front door wearing similar clothes to what he had on yesterday. A worn leather coat over a shirt, and rusty blue jeans. I liked the way the pants fit around his butt. I don’t mind looking. I mean — come on! If it’s then end of the world, you might as well enjoy the little things, right?
Lucas has a red hat on today, and dark pointed boots. He’s carrying a hunting rifle slung over his shoulder, one hand on the strap the other holding out my bow and arrows. “Found this in the water, too…Must be yours.”
“Yes, thank you,” I tell him.
“You’re good with a bow, right Rian?”
“She’s the best, Lucas,” June says, coming out from nowhere and I shush her.
“She doesn’t know what she’s talking about — ”
“Yes, I do Rian…You’re really good…Lucas, she’s good; She’ll probably kill some birds or something like that while you two are out there K-I-S-S-I — ”
“OKAY! JUNE!” I yell over her. “That’s quite enough out of you.”
There’s earnest laughter coming from the kitchen and Mary strolls out, grinning. “You two be careful,” she tells us. “And if you need anything…Lucas, your father is out there…He’s working in the shed.”
“All right, bye mom,” he tells her and I say a goodbye too. Lucas opens the door and out we go again onto the farm.
...
By noon I manage to kill four game birds, and Lucas ended up with…um, nothing. He’s frustrated with this, I can tell easily enough, but he doesn’t bring it up as we’re walking toward the reservoir he mentioned yesterday. The birds flop around on the string that Lucas had tied so deftly; I remind him that he did a pretty good job at it too.
“Best knots I’ve seen in awhile,” I say, grinning.
“Yeah right,” he says, shaking his head. “You’re just trying to be nice because I didn’t get anything this time…But next time, I got you.”
And there it is. I smile, and incline my head, although I don’t think there will be a next time. June and I will most likely leave the Huckles soon, although it might take some convincing on June’s half. She really likes it here. Her relationship with Mary has grown considerably, and I know Mary cares for her too even in these couple of days we’ve been here.
“Alright, alright,” I say. “Maybe, I’ll let you have them next time.”
He laughs as we continue our way down the forested trail. We eventually reach the reservoir, and when we do the first thing he asks me takes me off guard. This side of Lucas I have not seen before. Then again, I barely know him.
“Have you ever been skinny dipping before?”
I shake my head. “No, why? Is that what you want to do?”
“Well, it’s the end of the world, you know,” he tells me. “So might as well, right?”
For whatever reason this makes me laugh. “Fine…I guess.”
“Okay, but you can’t let my parents know this happened.”
“Why would I want to have an incredibly awkward conservation like that?”
“I don’t know,” he says, shrugging. “Just making sure…Sit them down over here; we’ll take the pier.”
We start taking off our clothes, once we reach the pier’s end, stripping down to the bare nothing. Lucas is fairly fit; I guess he has all that work on the farm to thank for the muscular tone to his body, but his usually clothed parts of his body are comically ashen white. Like his stomach, and everything below. I think this is my first time seeing a boy’s penis in person; it makes me smirk, a little. He has a lot of dark hair down there too, but I don’t say anything.
“What?” he says, raising a brow. “Like what you see?”
“Yeah, sure,” I say flatly, and his nostrils flare by the tone of my voice.
“Hey, look over there,” he says, pointing.
My brow furrows, and I try to concentrate on what he was talking about. “Lucas, I don’t see — ”
And I’m pushed outward; then I’m falling. When I hit the cold water, I can’t believe I fell for that. I spurt out water in his direction. “Hey! No fair!” I shout.
“Not my fault,” he says, flippantly, “you fell for it!”
“Get it in here! I don’t want to be the only one freezing.”
“Watch out! Cannonball!” He cries, and runs, grabbing a hold of both his knees, pushing them together before hitting the water. There’s a rolling wave, and he has submerged in the water momentarily, before resurfacing. I gasp in air and as soon as I see Lucas pop up I splash water his way, which leads into an all out water-splashing war. We start laughing, and reality hits as I start thinking about Infected possibly hearing all the noise we’re making but as far as I can see nothing appears.
“You okay?” he asks me, swimming my way.
“I guess,” I say, but my mind is elsewhere.
“Thinking about your sister?” he asks me, and I nod.
“I’m also thinking about Infected hearing us.”
“Oh, don’t worry about that…I’ve made plenty of noise here before…And there’s been nothing,” he says. “I think we’re good for now…In a few years, maybe not.”
“Well, anyway,” I say as a wave of water laps into my mouth, causing Lucas to chuckle. I give him an angered look, and continue, “I think we should be getting back.”
“Alrighty,” he says, and I begin my swim to the shore.
I wring out my hair, my bow and arrows slung over my shoulder, as we make our way back to the farmland. It would be about a ten-minute walk from where we are, I guess, as we travel along a rocky hill. I still couldn’t quite get the image of Lucas’s naked body out of my head; I try to focus my mind on other things, like the blue sky above us and the warmer air encircling us. We remain quiet for most of the walk, laughing occasionally about our epic wat
er fight and debating who actually won. Lucas, of course, thinks he did…I’m not as convinced.
“You may have caught me off guard, but that doesn’t mean you won,” I say, grinning.
“Well, you got the birds,” he says, tilting his head. “At least let me have that.”
“Alright,” I say, giving up. “I guess I can’t win them all.”
“You know Rian,” he says to me, his voice taking on a different, softer tone, “I’ve been thinking…I know we’ve only known each other for what? A couple days…But with the world as messed up as it is, I mean…I don’t want to miss the chance to tell you — ”
“Tell me what?”